Virginia

/ Virginia /

We meet Virginia watering the front garden of her farmhouse. She’s dressed in a large checked jacket and a black and white Arab keffaya in place of a scarf. She tells us in a rich plummy English accent that she has lived on the border since 1965 when she married a man from Northumberland. She farmed the land with her husband until he died and now her son and daughter-in-law run the farm. They keep sheep, cattle and have a bit of arable farmland.

“I talk about independence with my friends, who mostly live in Scotland, all the time and we think it's madness,” Virginia says, spraying her purple foxgloves with a hose. “I don’t quite know why we think it’s madness, but we feel it just can’t quite be right.”

Virginia believes the issue has proven divisive in communities and families where there are sometimes strong opposing opinions. She says it’s hard to decide because there’s not enough information about what an independent Scotland will be like and nothing about how it will affect people on the English side of the border.

“I don’t know,” Virginia says thoughtfully, while continuing to water the plants. “I don’t think I’d like to have a say in it because I don’t know what I’m talking about.” She laughs. “I don’t know anything about it. All we have to form our opinion is a feeling one gets, I gather.”